Inioch's Competitive LAN/PBEM Ruleset (updated Sept 2nd 2018)

Author

File Description

IniochReborn

Posted on 07/14/16 @ 06:57 PM

LATEST RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 2018
This mod is intended for competitive LAN games first and foremost, with certain considerations for PBEM games (i.e. auto-combat focused tweaks). This mod is a collaborative effort between three veteran players, and has undergone a few changes over the years. Make sure you have the latest release.

This mod aims to keep AoW's charm largely intact while expanding viable winning strategies at a competitive level. There is no abundance of 'new' content; there are only a couple new unit GFX (thanks to Laurentius) and no new buildings. The most apparent changes will be lower spell costs, and skill cost/availability. Heroes/Units/items have all been rebalanced. Other subtle changes, ex: units that spawn from razed structures, random crypt units, etc.

** The Human Swordsman and Archer remain average, but like all other units in this mod, have an added incentive to gain experience. The Pikeman is intended to be more of a front-line veteran from default. Cavalry remains average with added scout abilities once leveled up, like most other cavalry. It also gets First Strike at Gold Medal, emulating the Pikeman. Charlatan is replaced by Great Explorer, an extremely versatile but weak utility unit. Cavalier largely unchanged but with added veteran abilities. Musketeer gets Strike with same ATK as Swordsman...... The biggest change is the Air Galley. In competitive LAN games, the Air Galley was too OP. Yes, an 8-stack of Dragons can kill any number of adjacent non-stackable Air Galleys, but this stage of the game is not always reached before the game is decided, making it not always relevant. More importantly, "super heroes" are a bigger late game threat than any level 4, especially with networks of Air Galleys built across the map, which were too hard to disperse when Air Galleys were as strong as they were. Now, Air Galleys retain and even increase their "overland map" usefulness, but lose all combat ability unless upgraded at an Arena and, as air balloons/blimps, are much more frail.

**Azrac infantry are a little quicker to reflect their lack of armor. Scorpions are now (sometimes) useful with Wall Climbing. Elephants now have lower defense to reflect their large size and lack of armor, and also to address competitive balance issues in auto-combat especially. They make a comeback appearance as War Elephants, the Azrac equivalent of Turtle Catapults. Priests have "fire magic". Level 3 units are improved. Yaka Avatar gains means to breach walls among other small additions. **

** Lizardmen Swordsmen and Archers remain pretty average, while Slugs gain some usefulness with Wall Climbing. Battering Rams gain swimming by becoming Turtle Battering Rams, with a weak Strike abilty. Turtle Ballistas and Catapults also get a weak Strike abilty. Lizardmen siege machines are the only ones with Strike, but also the only ones who's movement points remain at 20 instead of 26. Salamanders are slightly stronger and faster. Lurkers are now much quicker making them useful scouts, Wyverns largely unchanged other than veteran abilities. Basilisk can now breach walls, is a little stronger, and has Water Concealment to make it potentially scary since it used to be one of the worst level 4's in the game.**

Rating: 4.0
Very nice Gameplay changes that made for a refrshing playthrough. I used way more spells and with it way more Tactical battle. For the first time I played through the campaign on hard without ever pumping my Heros stats, going for an Archmage kind of skillset instead.

Here are a few things I have noticed while playing:

The Flamethrowers are too strong now. They totaly replace any other wallbreaking unit. They have twice the HP of all other Tier 2 machines. They can 1v2 normal Tier 2 units. I like the idea of them breaking walls but they should not have so much HP.

Some races have unique maschines (e.q. Orc ballista) These machines should also have 26 movement points.

The Undead Necromancers have no poison immunity. That leads to some funky situations in the campaing where the undead have perma poison clouds over thier citys.

Blessing and Stone Skin are too strong compared to Tier 1 buff skills of other aspects. Reducing thier costs magnifies that effect. Should probably make the other buffs stronger.

That all so far. Thanks for this nice little rebalance :)

IniochRebornFile Author

Posted on 08/16/16 @ 03:00 PM

Hey thanks its nice to get feedback. I agree with most of what you said and will update the mod accordingly. Ill post a changelog at the end of this comment to record all changes.

One thing about this mod is that the original copy was corrupted (long story), but luckily one of the veteran players who was testing the mod for me was able to send it back to me. I've noticed a few unfamiliar things in my own mod recently that I believe to have been snuck in lol.. As an example, the Human Air Galley was stripped of its Flying ability and given Floating. This will be changed in this update.

Also there are a few reasons behind Bless and Stoneskin getting similar casting cost reductions as other Level 1 enchantments..
I)My experience with a few other long time players (on and off since release in 1999) has been that we chose Life and Death spheres the least often by far. For that reason alone, Bless and Dark Gift are the two cheapest enchantments in the game (along with Fury).
II)Stoneskin got a similar cost reduction as other spells basically to make the Earth sphere more appealing and try to keep us from always choosing Air. One reason why is that Chain Lightning can be used to reach up to 3 units beyond its own supposed range (!) by shooting it at the ground. The second is that we would choose the Air sphere in order to spawn Great Eagles and give them Haste, then send them off to raze each others resources. This was especially devastating considering it can be done fairly early in the game. Stone Skin being the best level 1 enchantment helped us even things out.

I agree that its a good idea to lower the Flamethrower HP. Ill also raise movement for Ballistas (Black Javelin included). These are two things that my friends and I discussed and were split on. If anyone else speaks out against it I may revert it but for now Id like to try it.

As for the Necromancers I will give them Poison Protection, and Immunity as they level up. They arent really meant to be 'undead' in the mod, but more crazed human fanatics.

Here is a changelog:

-Undead Necromancer now has Poison Protection as default, and Poison Immunity at Silver Medal.
-Flamethrower Ram nerfed from 15HP to 8HP.
-Ballistas and Black Javelins movement raised from 20 to 26 like all other siege machines.
-Human Air Galley regains Flying as it was intended to have..
-Item rebalance.
-Not new but unmentioned before: New heroes (made with portraits either unused in the game or hidden within DevEd) were added. Hero default abilities also edited.
-Also previously added but unmentioned: Custom diplomatic texts

Revolverman

Posted on 08/25/16 @ 07:01 AM

Hey, I don't think you uploaded the right file. All the issues you listed are still there (Air Galley only has float, Flamethrower still has its HP, etc, etc)

Oh, noticed the Undead swordsman's Bio is the Mummy's bio.

Also, if I may make a suggestion, given how much the AI spams flamethrowers, could they not get wall crushing until silver medal?

[Edited on 08/25/16 @ 07:10 AM]

Mac_Biodiesel

Posted on 11/23/16 @ 01:14 PM

I haven't tried this yet, but a couple things I notice from your notes.

1. Azracs: dropping magic bolts from the priests makes it harder for them to have a low-level response to physical and/or fire immunes like air elementals, incarnates, nordic glows, red dragons, and wraiths. This worse with the fliers; at least the wraiths can be turned. I guess this puts them in about the same boat as the Frostlings.

2. Elementals: I was thinking just the other day that all elementals should have regeneration. Thoughts?

3. Arenas: Did you change the cost to level units up in arenas? Those will become hot spots now.

4. Dwarves: Why give the giant wall crushing? Isn't that redundant with hurl boulder? And why make the boar rider have wall crushing? That's a fast battering ram, that can go over mountains to boot! The balloon shoot javelin confuses me. How can you make that only be added if the gold medal comes from the arena? Or are you saying it can only get to gold medal rank from the arena?

5. Undead: I'm curious about the bone horror getting round attack. Doesn't make sense to me, and I'm wondering even how the sprite graphics handles it. I'm surprised you went went with gas breath instead of black breath for the reaper.

Mac_Biodiesel

Posted on 11/23/16 @ 01:48 PM

I also tested just today and confirmed that air galley still has floating.

IniochRebornFile Author

Posted on 06/10/17 @ 08:46 PM

Hey guys. Took a year-long hiatus from AoW, mostly because of college. Not sure what happened on the last upload, but Ive updated the file with the changes previously mentioned (no more floating Air Galleys, mummy/undead swordsman bio, etc).

@Revolverman: The reason I, along with the group I play AoW with, have decided Flamethrowers should have wall crushing was because it was too easy to defend a castle with a small force against large AI armies (they'd only bring a single battering ram, you'd destroy it, then they'd turn around and leave).

@Mac_Biodiesel:
1. Azracs lose magic bolts but gain the advantage of hitting units across walls with ranged attacks (Call flames). Frostlings also lose magic bolts but having access to frost bolts is a good defense against "super heroes". Both races do end up relying more on enchanted weapon to counter wraiths, incarnates, air elementals, etc.

2. Elementals having regeneration does sound interesting but our group didnt agree on it when brought up.

3. Not sure how to change arena level up costs but they were always a hotspot for our group regardless. And would still be no matter what the cost lol.

4. Giants have wall crushing because it is more accurate that hurl boulder. If they are standing next to the wall, they shouldnt miss what a boulder, hence wall crushing. Also, boar riders only get wall crushing at gold medal. And yes, it does make them very useful. And yes, dwarven balloons can only get shoot javelin from the arena.

5. Our group wanted bone horrors to be a little more tank because they were always very 'cool', yet not very strong/useful. At least not compared to demons and wraiths. As for gas breath, our group basically just wanted to see it in the game.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it is cool to visit the old AoW site and see a few people still playing!

[Edited on 07/02/17 @ 11:25 AM]

AI_Squire

Posted on 07/02/17 @ 12:21 PM

Rating

5.0

Rating: 5

DL'd this cuz it was the newest mod on the site. I used to play Warlock mod back in the day and kinda wish this mod added same amount of new content. But i like how it feels like original for the most part. except much better balanced.

-I like how different races units get different perks when they level up and how level ups matter more for infantry and others

-i like the magic cost rebalance. i used to just level up defense right away and make a one man army. it was cool to be a powerful mage, and even enemy heros with spellcasting 1 could be a threat. unless theyre independents lol. would be cool if you could make independent heros have access to cosmos spells at least

-also i like the challenge of better supported ai armies with flamethrowers. and the trebuchets/builders. i agree ai armies with one battering ram used to be too easy to defend. but 8-stacks of flamethrowers suck lol so i try to control builder guilds or burn them down

-i also like the changes to boats, it makes it fun to build a navy

IniochRebornFile Author

Posted on 07/08/17 @ 08:16 AM

Hey thanks for the feedback. I have no idea how to give independent heroes any form of functional spellcasting. Same with some of the stuff Warlock's mod added in, that's beyond my own skills, using hex editors, sprite editors etc.

As for flamethrowers, with 8hp, 1def, and limited range, they are very vulnerable to ballistas and catapults.. Handy against the AI.

-Playing through the single-player campaign now, and the AI doesn't seem to be handling the changes as well. Maybe I'm not far enough along yet (Scenario #3), but it's been a lot easier than when I played through a couple months ago. Cheap spells are also a HUGE bonus for the human player, as usually you are mana poor when you start off each map.